Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) (29 page)

‘
Ooh, yes please,’ I said
excitedly.

‘
No!’ Luke said.

‘
Why not?’ I asked, frowning at
him. ‘I need to learn sometime.’

‘
It’s too dangerous. She’s too
young, and we still don’t know who she is,’ he said, eyeing
Brittany.

‘
Luke, she’s on our side. She’s
got the only solution,’ I said.

‘
No. I could take you, and she
could follow later, once she’s built up her power here,’ he
said.

‘
No way! We’re not leaving her on
her own. Brittany, tell me what to do.’

‘
Okay, well you know about
grounding, don’t you?’ she said. I nodded.

‘
Right, well in this case when you
ground you’ll imagine a container within you, in which you can
store the energy and direct it. When the excess energy blast hits
you, it will act like a lightning rod, allowing the energy to flow
freely without harming you.’

‘
Okaaay,’ I said, suddenly
wondering if this was a good idea.

‘
Once you’ve done that, it’s quite
easy. Close your eyes, let your mind drift, up out of your body and
into the sky. Let your subconscious float and hover… feel about you
until you find a ley-line. You’ll recognise it by the strong pull
of energy. Once you find it, grab hold and make a connection and
you’ll feel yourself being sucked up into it. Make sure you keep a
strong hold on your destination otherwise we could end up anywhere
that flashes through your memory,’ she said.

‘
But Susannah, a dark witch who
tried to kidnap me a month ago, she chanted a spell… Don’t I need
to say anything?’ I asked.

‘
Did she create a black, swirling
cloud that sucked you both up into the ley lines?’ Brittany asked.
I nodded.

‘
Wow, that’s pretty strong dark
magic. She must come from a powerful coven to create a vortex
strong enough to suck you both up. But thankfully we don’t need to
do that. White magic is softer, more intuitive.’

‘
Okay, let me have a go,’ I
said.

‘
Jess, be careful, please,’ Luke
said. ‘I won’t be able to see you or track you in the ley lines,
because you use them in a different way to us,’ he said. ‘And if
anything happens to her en-route, I shall hold you responsible and
hunt you down, no matter what your age,’ he added, looking directly
at Brittany, who met his stare head on.

‘
Fine, and when nothing does
happen to her, maybe then you’ll believe that I just want to be her
friend,’ she said.

‘
Right, I’m going to ground now,
so shut up the pair of you,’ I said, with a smile, as they obeyed
me and went silent.

I closed my eyes, felt the ground steady
beneath my feet, and imagined the feel of the individual blades of
grass tickling my toes, the soft richness of the earth beneath,
humming with energy. I imagined my root going deeper and deeper
into the ground, and drawing up the energy, pulling on it, filling
all my chakras and washing away any lingering negativity. I created
the imaginary box and filled it with the excess energy, the energy
I was going to use to fly, and then I reached up and left my
body.

I felt myself soaring into the clouds,
felt the cool mist swirling against my cheeks. I went higher and
paused, letting myself drift, wanting to shout and laugh. I was
euphoric.

‘
Jess, Jess, find the ley line.’
Brittany’s voice sounded muffled and distant, but I heard her and
remembered my task. I felt around me, but there was nothing so I
moved higher, instinctively feeling my way through the vapours
swirling around me, letting an anonymous energy pull me towards
it.

Suddenly I felt it, like a futuristic
super-highway with energies flowing past me in a blur. Somewhere
below I felt someone wrap themselves round my waist and seconds
later I connected to the slip-stream and felt a huge jolt run
through me as my soul was once again reunited with my body. An
outpouring of heat and a rush of wind blasted my hair, which
swirled around my face, and I looked through my eyes and grinned at
Brittany, who grinned back.

‘
Now think of Manchester, and
nothing else,’ she said, and we were off.

I tried not to get distracted by the
beauty of the lines swirling around us, criss-crossing the English
countryside, and focused instead on Daniel’s house. I felt us
pulled faster and faster, until the lines became a blur around us
and I felt Brittany’s grip on me tighten.

‘
Slow down Jess, you’re going too
fast,’ she shouted. But I didn’t know how to. My focus was on
getting us back to Manchester, back to Daniel. I kept him in my
thoughts and felt the world spin past on a fast cycle.

Suddenly I had a vision, a vision of his
house, and his garden rose before me, shutting out everything else.
I knew we had arrived.

‘
How do we get out?’ I
yelled.

‘
Just disconnect… disconnect from
the energy source, but slowly Jess, slowly.’

It turned out landing was much harder
than taking off, and disconnecting slowly was pretty hard to do
when you’re flying through the atmosphere at who knows what speed.
But I managed it, I disconnected from the energy source. I imagined
us landing in his garden, softly, our toes touching the ground
gently. In reality we fell out of the sky, plummeting into his
garden from a hundred feet up and landed in a tangle of limbs in
the middle of a rose bush, my arm making a sickening crack as
Brittany fell on top of me.

‘
Ow!’ I yelled, but as I gently
pushed her off me, worrying about what injuries had befallen her
frail human body, she sat back and grinned. She had managed to pull
a shield around herself as she fell, and was still encapsulated by
a shimmering pale pink bubble.

‘
You could have extended that
round me,’ I said, holding my left arm up for her to see, whilst
the lower part swung back and forth in a rather stomach-turning
display.

‘
Oh sorry! I didn’t think you’d
get hurt, being a vamp and all,’ she said.

‘
I can still break unfortunately,
even if it does heal super quick… but I’m not great at this. Will
you just hold it in the right place for me while it
heals?’

‘
Ugh, okay then,’ she said, and
after hauling ourselves out of the rose bush and onto the grass,
she took hold of my floppy arm and held it still, while I felt the
bones knit back together.

‘
That is awesome,’ she said,
grinning.

‘
Yeah, but it doesn’t feel so
awesome, that’s for sure,’ I said, after a couple of minutes, and
then, ‘Where’s Luke? I thought he’d be here by now.’

‘
You were fast Jess, I mean
real
fast! You need some serious
power to travel that fast, and with a passenger too. It only took
us about three and half minutes,’ she said, looking down at her
watch.

‘
Oh! Well I guess we’ll have to
wait about five minutes for Luke then. We might as well get inside
the house, and see if they’re back yet,’ I said, knowing in my
heart that if Daniel had been in the house, he would have come out
to meet us already.

‘
Jess, you do know he’s not going
to be there, don’t you?’ she said.

I looked down at my feet and we stood up
and slowly walked to the same patio door I had left unlocked when I
left the house, hoping Daniel and Eva hadn’t locked it before they
came to find me.

‘
Yes, I do, but I just can’t
believe that he is dea…gone. I mean, we had a bond, a connection,
and I know that it has been broken, but I’m still sure that I’d
feel something… but I don’t.’ I said. ‘And they’re so smart, Eva
would never let herself get caught out by that null bomb, they
would have got out. They had to have done.’

Thankfully the door was unlocked and we
let ourselves in. The house was soundless, still, and nothing had
changed from when I had left. We walked over to the kitchen table
and sat down to wait for Luke.

‘
You know what he’s going to say,’
Brittany said quietly. I nodded slowly.

‘
That they’re gone,’ I said,
looking at my fingers, which I had tightly intertwined and laid on
the table top. ‘But they
are
fast enough to get out in time. Eva certainly wouldn’t have
died for me,’ I said.

‘
Would she have died for Daniel
though?’ Brittany whispered.

‘
She was his maker, once a long
time ago, they were more than friends, but not for decades. They
are close friends that’s all, and she wanted to go to fashion
college. I don’t understand. They wouldn’t have done
this.’

‘
But why was her car still there?
They would have taken it,’ Brittany reasoned.

‘
I don’t know, but it’s just
impossible that they would have stayed too long in the building
once they heard the alarm,’ I said.

‘
What if they got trapped? Maybe
someone stopped them leaving? You need to face facts Jess. If he
were alive, I’m sure he would have come to find you by now,’
Brittany said, voicing my own silent fear. I sighed.

‘
She’s right,’ said Luke, standing
in the doorway.

‘
So now I need to see Sebastian.
He’s bonded to Eva, so he will know what has happened. Will I be in
trouble? Is it my fault, Luke?’

‘
No Jess, it’s not your fault. You
may have left without their permission, but you did
not
force Daniel and Eva to come
after you. I will come with you,’ Luke said.

‘
So will I,’ Brittany said. ‘I can
vouch for you.’

‘
No, you need to sleep. You’re
exhausted,’ I said.

‘
Brittany, I’m sorry about before,
okay, but Jess is right. You need to rest now. I’ll make sure Jess
gets back,’ Luke said.

‘
Are you two an item? I mean, I’m
a little confused… you seem close, but then there’s Daniel, and…’
she asked suddenly.

‘
No,’ we both said in unison,
glancing at each other and laughing.

‘
Maybe we once were, but not now,’
I said.

‘
We’re just friends…now,’ Luke
said.

‘
Right, so where shall I sleep. I
don’t know if I should stay here by myself,’ she added.

‘
Here, I’ll show you my room.
You’ll be fine there,’ I said. ‘Just give me a minute to tidy it
up.’

I left the room quickly and nipped
upstairs. It wasn’t the clothes on the floor, or the pile of books
and dvds that bothered me. It wasn’t the unmade bed that concerned
me, and I wanted to find my Book of Shadows. I trusted Brittany, I
did, but after only knowing her for twenty-four hours I wasn’t
about to test that trust. From now on I was going to be a girl in
control. The book would come with me. I grabbed my favourite
messenger bag and stuffed the old book quickly into its folds,
along with my purse and the phone that Daniel had given me, then I
called Brittany.

By the time we left the house with
Brittany sleeping, the sun had sunk on yet another day and darkness
was once again creeping in. I was fairly sure I’d find Sebastian in
his office at Exodus, so after a short angel-powered journey we
touched down some five minutes later in the alley behind the club.
With Luke at my side I stepped up to the bolted door and
knocked.

‘
Hey Jess, you’re back,’ Johnny
said, his eyes flicking nervously to Luke.

‘
Hi Johnny, can you take us to
Sebastian please?’ I said.

‘
Umm sure, he’s been expecting
you, but what about him?’ he said, motioning to Luke.

‘
I’m coming too,’ Luke
said.

‘
Right, okay then. This way,’ and
holding the door open we entered the club and followed him down the
now familiar corridor towards Sebastian’s office.

‘
Hello Jess, it’s good to see you
back safely. I see you’ve brought your pet along?’ Sebastian said,
rising from his chair as we entered the room.

‘
I am a higher being, vampire.
Show some respect,’ Luke said, his eyes stony.

‘
That may be so, but you are not
quite
normal,
are you fallen
one? I can’t quite work out whether it is you that
has
the pet or if you
are
the pet.’

‘
What are you getting at,
Sebastian?’ I asked, not liking the insinuation.

‘
Well, first he leaves a dying
girl to the mercy of the local vampires, and then it is rumoured
that he, not only lets you
feed
from him, but also you have a love affair. Poor Daniel,’ he
said, ‘cast aside for one of God’s rejects.’

‘
How did you hear…’ Luke
started.

‘
We are not having a love affair.
I fed from him because I was virtually dead and it really was the
last option Lukecould offer me, and besides, Daniel wasn’t there.
He was too late. Is he still alive then? Have they contacted you?’
I asked.

‘
Vampires don’t die that easily,
Jess…’ Sebastian began.

‘
They do when a witch has set fire
to them,’ I retorted. ‘But Daniel, where is he?’

For a moment Sebastian paused, taking
everything in, as if he was contemplating several different
answers. His eyes gazed across the room, unblinking for several
moments and I wondered if he was communicating with Eva, or another
vampire. Then he frowned slightly and spoke the words I’d
feared.